different between creek vs harbor

English

Alternative forms

• crick (dialectical US)
• crik (eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle English cr?ke, from Old Norse kriki. Early British colonists of Australia and the Americas used the term in the usual British way, to name inlets; as settlements followed the inlets upstream and inland, the names were retained and creek was reinterpreted as a general term for a small waterway.. Compare Dutch kreek, and French crique, both from the same source.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kr?k IPA^(key): /k?i?k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /k?ik/, (Appalachia) /k??k/
• Rhymes: -i?k, -?k
• Homophones: creak, crick

Noun

creek (plural creeks)

1. (Britain) A small inlet or bay, often saltwater, narrower and extending farther into the land than a cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river; the inner part of a port that is used as a dock for small boats.
2. (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, US) A stream of water (often freshwater) smaller than a river and larger than a brook; in Australia, also used of river-sized waterbodies.
3. Any turn or winding.

Synonyms

• beck, brook, burn, stream
• (regional US terms:) run (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia), brook (New England), branch (Southern US), bayou (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Southeastern Texas)

Derived terms

Descendants

• Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin: kriki
• Sranan Tongo: kriki

Translations

References

Anagrams

• ecker

English

Alternative forms

• harbour (Commonwealth)
• herberwe, herborough (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?h??b?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?h??b?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)b?(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English herber, herberge, from Old English herebeorg (“shelter, lodgings, quarters”), from Proto-West Germanic *harjabergu (“army shelter, refuge”) (compare West Frisian herberch (“inn”), Dutch herberg (“inn”), German Herberge), from *harjaz (“army”) + *berg? (“protection”), equivalent to Old English here (“army, host”) + beorg (“defense, protection, refuge”). Cognate with Old Norse herbergi (“a harbour; a room”) (whence Icelandic herbergi), Dutch herberg, German Herberge (“inn, hostel, shelter”), Swedish härbärge. Compare also French auberge (“hostel”). More at here, harry, borrow and bury. Doublet of harbinger

Noun

harbor (countable and uncountable, plural harbors) (American spelling)

1. (countable) Any place of shelter.

2. (countable, nautical) A sheltered expanse of water, adjacent to land, in which ships may anchor or dock, especially for loading and unloading.

   A harbor, even if it is a little harbor, is a good thing, since adventurers come into it as well as go out, and the life in it grows strong, because it takes something from the world, and has something to give in return - Sarah Orne Jewett

3. (countable, glassworking) A mixing box for materials.
4. (obsolete, countable) A house of the zodiac, or the mansion of a heavenly body.

   • To ech of hem his tyme and his seson, / As thyn herberwe chaungeth lowe or heighe

5. (obsolete, uncountable) Shelter, refuge.

Alternative forms

• harborough (obsolete)

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Cebuano: harbor
• ? Marshallese: aba
• ? Welsh: harbwr

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English herberwen, herber?en, from Middle English herebeorgian (“to take up one's quarters, lodge”), from the noun (see above).

Verb

harbor (third-person singular simple present harbors, present participle harboring, simple past and past participle harbored) (American spelling)

1. (transitive) To provide a harbor or safe place for.

2. (intransitive) To take refuge or shelter in a protected expanse of water.

3. (transitive) To drive (a hunted stag) to covert.
   • 1819, John Mayer, The Sportsman's Directory, or Park and Gamekeeper's Companion

     This is the time that the horseman are flung out, not having the cry to lead them to the death. When quadruped animals of the venery or hunting kind are at rest, the stag is said to be harboured, the buck lodged, the fox kennelled, the badger earthed, the otter vented or watched, the hare formed, and the rabbit set.

4. (transitive) To hold or persistently entertain in one's thoughts or mind.

Derived terms

• harborer

Translations

See also

• haven
• dock

References

• harbor in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “harbor” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “harbor”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.

Cebuano

Etymology

From English harbor, from Middle English herberwen, herber?en, from Middle English herebeorgian (“to take up one's quarters, lodge”),

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: har?bor

Verb

harbor

1. (slang) to appropriate another person's property

Noun

harbor

1. (slang) appropriation; an act or instance of appropriating

Derived terms

• harbor

Descendants

• Cebuano: harbat